Can't overclock i7 920 to 3GHz. Please help!

[Jamesn007]

Hi,
I just put an i7 920 computer together today and found that I can't run prime95 stable at 3Ghz (I was planning to overclock to 3.6Ghz!). Anyway, I am able to run prime95 at 2.9Ghz and the load temperature peaks at 74 degree C.

Here is my computer specs
CPU: i7 920
MB: Asus P6T
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB Triple Channel DDR3-1600
Cooler: TRUE
VCard: HD 4890
Case: CM 690

Here are the current voltage settings:
CPU: 1.35V
QPI/DRAM: 1.35V
DRAM Bus: 1.64V
CPU PLL: 1.96V
Everything else is set as auto

Could someone please advice what to do? I am very disappointed with my system!
Regards,
James

 

[Shmee]

try remounting teh true, or mb get it lapped. also, what fan are you using on it?

 

[faxon]

^^^ what he said. i lapped and mounted his TRUE for him, he doesnt get much passed 48-55c at 3.6 depending on what stress test he decides to use. not sure what his voltages were exactly, but things werent exactly in the toasty range either if you get my drift. The thermal grease that comes with the TRUE is also some of the best on the market (better than AS5) so if you're using some generic goop you still had lying around, or even AS5 or something else thats high quality, but has been lying around for a while, you can try using some of the stuff that came with it. the base on the bottom of the TRUE is really badly ground down at the factory, as are most thermalright coolers. i can usually produce some amount of noise when i run my finger nail across a fresh out of the box thermalright cooler's base. the results from lapping are well worth the effort.

your temps are closer to what shmee was getting with the stock cooler that comes with the i7 lol

 

[JAG87]

first of all the temps are high, remount the sink. second, you don't need to change any voltages to get to 3 ghz, especially PLL, where did you get the idea that you need to raise that. put everything to default, and be sure your board doesn't overvolt on auto.

also, make absolutely sure that your uncore is reaching 3200 Mhz, that's one of the most common mistakes.

 

[Silverbuckle]

First of all, planning to overclock a 920 to a specified level is foolish. You can hope to hit it, but there is no guarantees. If you cannot hit your goal with what you have, the only real answer is to change processors.

I have overclocked many many i7 920's and they range all over the map as to final results. The only sure thing is that you can overclock somewhat!

My suggestion is to use the Auto tune, if your mobo has it and then do Prime 95. If stable, go to manual and start upping the Host Clock frequency bit by bit until it crashes. Then back off bit by bit, say 2MHz, run a stree test(local if available) and if that is stable run prime 95 again.

With the 920, the only real adjustment to parameters that I would use is HCF. Playing with memory or cpu voltages or any other adjustable voltage until you have the stable point with HCF attained complicates matters.

I know that long time OC experts can manipulate these values at will. I can, but I certainly don't advise it for a beginner.

These comments apply to the 920 and the 940. The 965 is another matter!

Hope this helps!

 

[ectx]

Originally posted by: JAG87

also, make absolutely sure that your uncore is reaching 3200 Mhz, that's one of the most common mistakes.

can you elaborate on this? Thanks.

 

[JAG87]

The default Uncore multiplier is 16, what is your BCLK? You need 200 BCLK to reach 3200 MHz with a 16x Uncore.

If you are using a lower BCLK, then you have to raise the multiplier. Uncore must be 2x RAM speed otherwise you will have an unstable system.

 

[ectx]

When I raised the multiplier to 20x (memory at 10x), I could not even boot at 163 Blck....

 

[imported_Shaq]

Originally posted by: Jamesn007
Hi,
I just put an i7 920 computer together today and found that I can't run prime95 stable at 3Ghz (I was planning to overclock to 3.6Ghz!). Anyway, I am able to run prime95 at 2.9Ghz and the load temperature peaks at 74 degree C.

Here is my computer specs
CPU: i7 920
MB: Asus P6T
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB Triple Channel DDR3-1600
Cooler: TRUE
VCard: HD 4890
Case: CM 690

Here are the current voltage settings:
CPU: 1.35V
QPI/DRAM: 1.35V
DRAM Bus: 1.64V
CPU PLL: 1.96V
Everything else is set as auto

Could someone please advice what to do? I am very disappointed with my system!
Regards,
James

First off don't go above 1.88 CPU PLL that is the limit set by Intel and you generally don't need to. Put your DRAM to 1.5 for now at auto timings and 6.0 multi. 1.45 is the limit for the CPU should you need to go that high, but I highly doubt you need to for 3.6 Ghz. 1.35 is the limit for QPI but you can probably set it at 1.30 for that OC. Uncore multi must be at least two times the DRAM multi. Many 920's can do 3.0 easily at default voltages though. Make sure it is not the RAM holding it back and set it as I described.

 

[JAG87]

Originally posted by: ectx
When I raised the multiplier to 20x (memory at 10x), I could not even boot at 163 Blck....

If you leave your Uncore multiplier at default, it is running at 163 x 16, which is 2608 Mhz. And you are trying to run memory at 1630 Mhz, no wonder it's not booting?

 

[ectx]

Originally posted by: JAG87

Originally posted by: ectx
When I raised the multiplier to 20x (memory at 10x), I could not even boot at 163 Blck....

If you leave your Uncore multiplier at default, it is running at 163 x 16, which is 2608 Mhz. And you are trying to run memory at 1630 Mhz, no wonder it's not booting?

I thought my memory OCZ3P1600LV6GK should be able to run at 1600mhz and I bumped the voltage a little, thought it would be able to boost the speed by a mere 30 Mhz... ?

 

[Mykl]

Originally posted by: ectx
I thought my memory OCZ3P1600LV6GK should be able to run at 1600mhz and I bumped the voltage a little, thought it would be able to boost the speed by a mere 30 Mhz... ?

I know this thread is almost a month old, so my apologies for bumping it. I came across it running Google searches...


I just wanted to say that I have that exact same memory, and I'm having the exact same problem.

My i7 system has been up for two days, so I'm just starting to feel it out... but this memory seems fairly stubborn. The only way I can get it to boot with a BCLK setting higher than 133 is if I set the frequency to "auto." The boot screen tells me it's at 1066. With 160 BCLK it's running at about 1283.

I gave up on trying to manually adjust it. So I reset the BIOS, turned on the auto-overclock feature, and tried to adjust the memory frequency to run at just under it's rated 1600 with all timings set to auto. It still wouldn't load Windows.

*edit* Just tried again... the only way I can get this memory to run at it's rated 1600 is if I leave the BCLK alone. Manually setting the uncore doesn't help.

It's funny, because I had a couple of OCZ Platinum sticks in my old Athlon 64 4000+ system that showed similar symptoms. When overclocking the limit on the base clock was 245. It didn't matter if I was underclocking the memory or not, it simply flat refused to go any higher. Maybe I needed to overvolt something I hadn't thought of, but the CPU and the DIMM's seemed to have enough.

 

[iCyborg]

Did you try manually setting the DRAM timings according to company specs? There's a bunch of them, I only have info for the first 4 (7-7-7-24). They weren't correct for me, and the modules don't have XPD profiles. And you may want to try loosening command rate to 2T as well, though I didn't have to. I have the same exact same ram too, and didn't have such problems...

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

I thought, in general, that all high-speed RAM needs to be set manually. So that the "default" (SPD programmed) are for more normal speeds like 1033, to make sure that the MB will boot. It's up to the user to manually adjust BLCK, multi's, DIMM voltage and timings to the appropriate high-speed settings.

I'm using the DFI X58 with my D0 920, and am running at 4GHz (200x20, turbo disabled). My RAM is on the 3X (which is really 6X), so my RAM is running at DDR3-1200 speed. My Uncore multi is (I think, I'm not home) 12X. You are supposed to keep that at twice the multiplier (or higher, I've heard both) of your RAM.

i7 optimizer

Here's a link that you can plug in your max values, and it will generate a table of options with the various multipliers to make sure you don't OC something too much.

I ended up lowering the uncore and RAM multi's to take them out of the equation, and then worked on just increasing my CPU speed to test stability.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: Mykl

Originally posted by: ectx
I thought my memory OCZ3P1600LV6GK should be able to run at 1600mhz and I bumped the voltage a little, thought it would be able to boost the speed by a mere 30 Mhz... ?

I know this thread is almost a month old, so my apologies for bumping it. I came across it running Google searches...


I just wanted to say that I have that exact same memory, and I'm having the exact same problem.

My i7 system has been up for two days, so I'm just starting to feel it out... but this memory seems fairly stubborn. The only way I can get it to boot with a BCLK setting higher than 133 is if I set the frequency to "auto." The boot screen tells me it's at 1066. With 160 BCLK it's running at about 1283.

I gave up on trying to manually adjust it. So I reset the BIOS, turned on the auto-overclock feature, and tried to adjust the memory frequency to run at just under it's rated 1600 with all timings set to auto. It still wouldn't load Windows.

*edit* Just tried again... the only way I can get this memory to run at it's rated 1600 is if I leave the BCLK alone. Manually setting the uncore doesn't help.

It's funny, because I had a couple of OCZ Platinum sticks in my old Athlon 64 4000+ system that showed similar symptoms. When overclocking the limit on the base clock was 245. It didn't matter if I was underclocking the memory or not, it simply flat refused to go any higher. Maybe I needed to overvolt something I hadn't thought of, but the CPU and the DIMM's seemed to have enough.

I'm running 12GB of this memory with 160 BCLK and the boot screen (ASUS P6T) says 1283Mhz for the RAM. I raised the CPU core and QPI voltages to match at 1.225V and the RAM is set to 1.60V. I leave the timings set to Auto for the RAM, as I feel the little bit of extra performance due to aggressive timings isn't worth risking data corruption. My Core i7, C0 stepping will do 3.6Ghz pretty easily, but I don't like dealing with the higher temps and 3.2Ghz is plenty fast for now. Might crank it up in the winter when I need a space heater .

Edit: I disabled the Turbo mode feature of the CPU also.